Antonina S
Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University ORCID ID 0000-0002-5234-0758
Nazarii S
huliakLesya Ukrainka Volyn National University ORCID ID 0000-0002-9835-731X
Institutional Support of Euroregions “Carpathian”
and “Bug”: A Case Study for Ukrainian-Polish
Cross-Border Cooperation
Abstract: This paper presents cooperation across boundaries as co-operative meas-ures, being goal-oriented to the economic, social, scientific, technical, environmental, cultural, and other relations, initiating and deepening among territorial communi-ties, local authorities both in Ukraine and in Poland. The methodological basis of the study consists of the following approaches to the study of Euroregions: geographical, political, administrative, functional. Definitions of the Euroregion as the main form of border cooperation have been determined, and institutions promoting cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and Poland have been studied. The institutional support for cross-border cooperation within the framework of the “Carpathian” and “Bug” Euroregions has been examined. Features of the Ukrainian-Polish Euroregions – “Carpathian” and “Bug” have been characterized. Problematic issues concerning the Euroregion cross-border cooperation support have been identified. Moreover, recom-mendations on improving the institutional component of the Ukrainian-Polish CBC within the “Carpathian” and the “Bug” Euroregions are given herein.
Key words: institutional support, cross-border cooperation, “Carpathian,” “Bug,” Ukraine, Poland
B
eing an element of the state policy, today, cross-border cooperation (CBC) occupies an important place in socio-economic development priorities and European integration directions. An important aspect of regional development is establishing interregional and cross-border co-operation among border regions and territories. A progressive form of such cross-border cooperation is creating Euroregions, which envisages some cooperation between administrative and territorial units and iscar-ried out under bilateral or multilateral CBC agreements. Today, a unified system of cross-border space management has emerged in Ukraine – of Euroregions covering all the border regions along the perimeter of the state border. In the regional governance system, they must fully take over the coordination in the development of cross-border regions and ensure their competitiveness in the domestic and global territories.
Ukraine has some great potential for its development due to the favora-ble geopolitical position since 19 out of 25 regions are border-regions, and the Ukraine external border is the longest in Europe (1390 km of the land border with EU countries). The activities of the “Carpathian” and the “Bug” Euroregions are among the main forms of Ukrainian-Polish cooperation within CBC. Unfortunately, Ukraine lacks the experience of institutional support. Therefore, research on the development of general principles and generalization of the experience of implementing various aspects of institutional support of CBC becomes relevant.
We focus on the Ukrainian side in the study because the current po-litical situation in our country has led to a decrease in bilateral relations between Poland and Ukraine, and the biggest loss has become our close ties with the eastern border regions. Most companies did not cope with the difficult situation due to economic and political problems in Ukraine. Micro, small institutions, and enterprises operating in the field of cross-border business are still in worse conditions (Kawałko, 2011). The impor-tant problem is that areas with the most intense international economic ties in both countries are located far from the border.
Review of sources and methods
The presented research is based on the information and conclusions we received during the study by the Department of International Com-munications and Political Analysis of Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University on cross-border cooperation of Ukraine, starting from 2013. For three years in a row (2013–2015), the Department has conducted a study on “Cross-Border Co-operation Information Support” by Order of the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sport of Ukraine. Research findings have resulted in the publication of three monographs edited by the author of the article Antonina Shuliak (Mytko). They out-line findings on informational and institutional support for a SWOT analysis of cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and its nearest
neighboring countries in three aspects: theoretical, practical, and me-thodical.
The formation and development of CBC for a long time is the subject of special attention of scientists. In the late 1980s, I. Babets, P. Belenky, V. Garagonych, E. Matveev, N. Mikula, A. Mokiy, S. Tovkanets, G. Tov-kanets, P. Belenky, and others began to study this topic in Ukraine.
The most important traditional and new groups of sources of targeted information for the study of institutional support are: archival sources and published documentary materials of Ukraine and neighboring countries; documentary sources on cross-border cooperation in the international di-mension; documentary and information materials on cross-border coop-eration; statistical materials on cross-border coopcoop-eration; concepts and strategies, programmes and projects for the development of cross-border cooperation; various kinds of memoirs. Analyzing these groups of data, we note that the concept of “cross-border cooperation” consists of the fol-lowing elements: cross-border cooperation; Euroregion; its subjects and participants; agreements on cross-border cooperation; joint projects (pro-grammes); projects (programmes) on cross-border cooperation; state sup-port for the development of cross-border cooperation; state programmes for the development of cross-border cooperation.
Activities of Euroregions and other CBC participants and parties are reduced to activities within joint projects and programmes as a set of measures to develop cross-border cooperation, which have received state
support in recent years. As a set of decisions and actions of Ukraine
pub-lic authorities’ organizational, legal, and financial nature, they have been aimed at implementing projects (programmes) on cross-border coopera-tion (Law of Ukraine, 2004).
An analysis of the strategic documents of the Ukraine and Poland inter-state policy and institutions responsible for their implementation showed that despite their considerable number, only a few are functioning and have some influence on the CBC policy. One of the most effective institu-tional mechanisms for bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and Poland today is the Intergovernmental Coordination Council for Interregional Cooperation (ICAMC). At present, the Ukrainian-Polish treaty base in-cludes about 200 agreements, treaties, and other bilateral international documents, including the agreement on local border traffic, the law on the Pole Map, and many others. The main legal instrument of Ukrainian-Polish interregional cooperation is the Intergovernmental Agreement of Ukraine and the Republic of Poland on Interregional Cooperation, which
is in force but needs change. Lviv, Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Volyn regions and Poland (Subcarpathian Voivodship) have no separate CBC strategies. Instead of them, there is a “Cross-border Cooperation Strategy for the Lublin Voivodship, Lviv, Volyn and Brest Regions for 2014–2020,” which is mostly formal.
A set of philosophical, general scientific, and special methods of classifi-cation and systematization were used to implement the research. It contrib-uted to the generalization of the legislative, normative documentation, and scientific literature on the research topic. Application of the structural and functional method enabled the study of a state support structure and func-tional features for developing Euroregions in the state. The system approach made it possible to carry out a general analysis of the state’s support for cross-border cooperation based on studying the relations and interactions of its institutions. In addition, methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, comparative analysis, the unity of theory and practice were used.
The methodological basis of the study consists of the following ap-proaches to the study of Euroregions: geographical – the Euroregion is a territory with a specific geographical location; political – parts of this territory are under the jurisdiction of sovereign states that share a com-mon border; administrative – the Euroregion is formed by the border re-gions of the states with a common border; functional ‒ the Euroregion is a form of cross-border cooperation.
Concept of “euroregion” as an institute of cross-border cooperation
Cross-border cooperation is carried out within the competence of ter-ritorial communities or authorities determined by the internal legislation. In the scientific literature, this term describes the territories of intensive border cooperation in all spheres of life. These are the aggregate border territories of two or more neighboring states with high available or poten-tial levels of border cooperation (Stechenko, 2006).
There are various forms of cross-border cooperation such as clusters, partnerships, industrial parks, techno-parks, projects, Euroregions, and European territorial cooperation groups among the mechanisms actively used in the world practice and relevant to current globalization trends and can be applied in Ukrainian realities (Mikula, 2003, pp. 9–12). First of all, cross-border cooperation institutions should include Chambers of
Com-merce and Industry, regional development agencies, business centers, and various industry associations. They are at the heart of the environment in which public initiatives are being developed to improve regulatory policy in cross-border cooperation and prepare relevant projects and grant appli-cations under relevant programmes funded by the EU budget. In addition, these institutions should carry out effective information and consultative activities in the environment of local self-government bodies, non-profit organizations, and business structures regarding the organizational and financial opportunities that they face, participating in cross-border coop-eration system (Shuliak, 2020, pp. 431–454).
To characterize the institutional support of Euroregions, initially, it is necessary to define the basic concepts of the categorical apparatus. The Law of Ukraine “On Cross-Border Cooperation” provides the following definition of the term: “The Euroregion is an organizational form of ad-ministrative and territorial units of European state cooperation, carried out in accordance with bilateral or multilateral agreements on cross-bor-der cooperation” (Law of Ukraine, 2004).
Today, there are between 120 and 183 Euroregions in Europe, but some of them have just declared their creation. Moreover, there are more than 100 Euroregions in Western and Central Europe. Most Euroregions are located at the borders with Germany (31), France (15), Sweden (16), Finland (10), as well as Poland (18), Czech Republic (13), Bulgaria (14), Hungary (15) and Romania (13). In Western and Central Europe, there are more than 90 Euroregions. The chronological distribution widely confirms facts, having been theorized by other studies, dealing with the proliferation of Eurore-gions, especially during the 1990s and the first years of the 2000s. Important explanatory factors are derivable from the European enlargement process and the political, legal, and financial support provided by the European insti-tutions and the Member States (Guimerà, Camonita, Berzi, Noferini, 2018). The Ukrainian side actively supports the creation of similar forms of cross-border cooperation. According to the Ministry of Economic, the Eu-roregions territory makes up almost a third of the total area of Ukraine, with 31.5% of the population in our country. Euroregions include 9 (nine) re-gions such as Volyn, Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv. From the border of foreign countries, they are administrative-territorial units of Poland, Belarus, Romania, Slo-vakia, Hungary, Moldova, Russia, and even Austria, Germany, France.
Since the early 1990s, four Euroregions have been established at the borders of Ukraine and the new EU Member States, involving six
regions of Ukraine. It is the “Carpathian” Euroregion (Ukraine – Po-land – Slovakia – Hungary – Romania), established in 1993; and the “Bug” Euroregion (Ukraine – Poland – Belarus) – 1995; “Lower
Dan-ube” (Ukraine – Moldova – Romania) – 1998; “Upper Prut” (Ukraine
– Moldova – Romania) – 2000. Four more Euroregions were created by three regions of Ukraine together with the CIS countries: “Dnipro” (Ukraine – Russia – Belarus) – 2003; “Slobozhanshchina” (Ukraine – Russia) – 2003; “Yaroslavna” (Ukraine – Russia). In 2007, the Lu-hansk Regional Administration and the Administration of the Rostov Region of Russia initiated the creation of a cross-border association on their territories, such as the “Donbas” Euroregion. In 2010, the leaders of the Lugansk and Rostov regions signed the relevant Agreement in Luhansk. In 2012, the “Azov” Euroregion creation issue was to include territorial units of Ukraine and the Russian Federation (Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk region, Crimea, Krasnodar, and Rostov regions), which was actively discussed.
The Assembly of European Regions coordinates the development of cooperation at the level of the Euroregions. The purpose of the activity is to increase the level in the sphere of economy, politics, culture, etc., that is, to pull the lagging regions to the required level (Bilokon, 2004, pp. 76–111). Admission to the Euroregion is voluntary. Expectations of eco-nomic benefits are most influenced by decision-making. Cooperation in the fields of science and culture is also important. Expectations for invest-ments, the introduction of preferential taxes, etc., play a significant role. Mutual knowledge and understanding between representatives of certain territories and creating more favorable conditions of life is the most im-portant element of European integration (Stechenko, 2006).
We believe that the main tasks of the Euroregions (Mytko, 2013, pp. 8–23) are the following:
– experience and information exchange;
– equalization and continuous improvement of living conditions; – regional development support;
– development of economy, trade, and tourism; – environment improvement and protection;
– cooperation in the prevention and management of natural disasters and catastrophes;
– cooperation in the field of humanitarian and social activities, in the field of education, sports, and health;
Institutionalization of Ukraine and Poland relations within European regions
A special institutional level of the CBC between Ukraine and Poland was formed in the first half of the 1990s during the emergence of the “Carpathian” and “Bug” regions as important centers of the intensifica-tion and development of Ukrainian-Polish interregional and cross-border cooperation. The “Carpathian” Euroregion (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Tran-scarpathia, Chernivtsi regions as participants from the Ukrainian side, and Subcarpathian Voivodship from Polish) was created based on the Decla-ration on CoopeDecla-ration of Communities Living in the Carpathian Region and the Statute of the Interregional Association “Carpathian” Euroregion, dated February 14, 1993, and signed in Debrecen (Hungary) by the Min-isters of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Poland, and Hungary. Agreement on the Creation of a Cross-Border Association “Euroregion Bug” was signed on September 29, 1995, in Lutsk between the Volyn region and the former Chelm, Lublin, Tarnobrzeg, and Zamost Voivodships of the Republic of Poland (now the Ukrainian side is represented by Volyn region, Zhovkiv and Sokal districts of Lviv region, Polish side – by Lublin Voivodship) (Information support, 2015).
The institutions promoting cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and Poland cover institutions at national, regional, and local levels. It in-cludes international institutions, foreign diplomatic missions and consu-lar posts, local self-government bodies, governing bodies of cross-border associations, Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI), associations of economic entities, regional development agencies (Table 1).
Table 1
Institutions for Promoting Cross-Border Cooperation between Ukraine and Poland
Institutions Institutions Functions
1 2 3
International
Institutions Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, Assembly of European Regions, Association of European Border Regions. Joint structures and authorities responsible for the “Poland-Bela-rus-Ukraine” Cross-Border Pro-gramme.
Development of a strategy for the de-velopment of CBC among the regions of Europe; development of CBC prin-ciples and recommendations for their implementation;
financial support for cross-border proj-ects; promoting interregional integra-tion.
1 2 3 European
institutions Association of European Frontier Regions (AEFR), Assembly of European Regions (AER), Del-egation of the European Union to Ukraine, Interregional Associa-tion “Carpathian Euroregion.”
Organization of commissions, commit-tees’ meetings, forums, conferences, European and national institutions; Initiation of working groups created to develop appropriate development tools. Consular
authorities Consulates General of Ukraine in Krakow, Lublin; Consulates Gen-eral of the Republic of Poland in Lviv, Lutsk.
Issuance of Visas, Certificate for Ukrai-nians, Cards of a Pole, Permit for small border traffic, etc.;
Assistance for citizens (legal entities) in finding partners in neighboring countries; Issuance of Apostilles, legalization, translation of documents, and certifica-tion of signatures.
Local self-government bodies
Regional and local self-govern-ment bodies in the border areas of Ukraine, Poland.
Permanent Conference of Heads of Regional State Administrations and Regional Councils of Ukraine and voivodships and marshals of the voivodships of Poland.
Development of interregional and cross-border cooperation, involvement, international technical assistance; Intensification of foreign economic re-lations and the entry into the foreign market of local enterprises, institutions, and organizations;
Assistance in the activities of customs, state protection agencies.
Governing bodies of cross-border associations
The Council, the Presidium of the Council, and the Secretariat of the Euroregion “Bug.”
Council, Presidium of the Coun-cil, and Secretariat of the “Car-pathian” Euroregion.
Organization and coordination of ac-tivities, facilitating economic, scientific, environmental, cultural, and education-al cooperation between members of the Euroregion;
Development of specific CBC Projects between members in the area of mutual interests;
Facilitation of the development of con-tacts among the population inhabiting territories, belonging to the Euroregion, in particular among specialists from dif-ferent industries;
Promotion of good neighbor relations between Euroregion members;
Mediation and cooperation of Eurore-gion members with international orga-nizations and institutions;
Fulfillment of the beneficiary’s func-tions in EU cross-border programmes. Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (CCI)
CCI of Ukraine, CCI of Poland. Regional CCIs.
Polish-Ukrainian CCI.
Organization of cross-border fairs, ex-hibitions;
Establishment of contacts between busi-ness structures of the border regions;
1 2 3
Promotion of foreign economic rela-tions, export of domestic goods and services;
Provision of practical assistance to en-trepreneurs in conducting trade and fi-nancial operations in the domestic and foreign markets and developing new forms of cooperation.
Association of business entities
Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Association of Ukrainian Banks.
Development of cross-border produc-tion cooperaproduc-tion;
Facilitation of the technology transfer-ring and knowledge shatransfer-ring;
Exchange of personnel, joint retrain-ing, and professional development of personnel;
Joint consultations, meetings, and con-ferences.
Regional development agencies
Border Agency for Interna-tional Cooperation “Our House – Zhovkivshchyna,” Lviv Inter-national Development Agency “Ukraine-Poland,” Agency for Regional Development and Euro-pean Integration in Lviv Region, Lviv Center for Municipal and Regional Development, etc.
Development of a set of measures aimed at creating a positive image of the region, enhancing its investment at-tractiveness;
Promotion of the region internationally, attracting international donors and fi-nancial organizations to the region; Involvement of international and do-mestic financial institutions in regional development;
Promotion of socio-cultural integration. National
and regional institutions
The Assembly of Ukrainian Bor-der Regions and Euroregions, Advisory Council on Euroregion Development and CBC at the Ministry of Regional Develop-ment, Construction and Housing and Communal Services.
“Euroregions” (Association of Local Self-Government Bodies “Carpathian” Euroregion, “Bug” Euroregion), Scientific informa-tion-statistical cross-border clus-ter “Ukraine – Poland Infostat.” The Western Bug Basin Water Resources Management Author-ity of the State Agency of Water Resources of Ukraine.
Leading non-governmental orga-nizations of European direction.
Coordination and cooperation at the level of individual CBC institutions; Investment and establishment of the CBC participants’ interaction with the structures of local authorities, harmo-nization of common goals in the CBC fields, and resources to achieve produc-tive cooperation.
1 2 3 Institutions of interstate policy of Ukraine and Poland
Intergovernmental Agreement be-tween Ukraine and the Republic of Poland on Interregional Coop-eration.
Ukrainian-Polish Intergovern-mental Coordination Council for Interregional Cooperation Issues, Ukrainian-Polish Interregional Forum/Conference of Heads of Regional State administrations, regional councils of Ukraine and voivodships and marshals of voivodships of the Republic of Poland.
Permanent Ukrainian-Polish Con-ference on European Integration
Local governments (region, district, city), within their competence, con-clude agreements with the Polish local authorities (voivodship, county, city) on cooperation in the field of construction, transport, communal services, industry, nature conservation, and other issues of mutual interest;
Regular participation of the regional council representatives, state admin-istrations, and other institutions in the meetings of the Council, Emergency and Rescue, and Protection Commis-sion, and relevant commissions. Development of border checkpoints and border infrastructure;
CBC issues as to border areas. The Council meets once a year and com-missions every six months on a wide range of CBC issues; the participation in economic forums of Ukraine and Po-land, individual meetings, forums/ con-ferences, etc.
Consultive advisory bodies
Tourism Development Coordina-tion Council; Coordinating Coun-cil for the Development of the Sanatorium and Spa Sphere; Civic Council, Permanent Parliamenta-ry Commission on European Inte-gration, Cross-border Cooperation and Relations with Ukrainians Abroad.
Establishment of a Programme Coun-cil on projects and programmes. Co-financing of international technical as-sistance from the regional budget; Financing assistance of the international communication activities/ CBC within relevant regional programmes; organi-zational, analytical, and informational support of the regional council activity in the field of the region promotion; Facilitation of establishing cooperation with local government bodies of other regions of Ukraine and foreign coun-tries;
Consideration and coordination of in-dividual current issues regarding inter-national cooperation/CBC at working meetings and joint meetings with the relevant commissions of Poland.
Source: Own elaboration based on: Analysis of cross-border cooperation policy in Lviv
region, Analytical report (2015), Lviv, 122 p.; M. Slusarciuc (2016), Coordinates and
Representations of Architecture for a Regional Cross-Border Development Strategy,
12.02.2021; M. Slusarciuc (2018), The Role of Institutions in Cross-Border Regions
Theo-retical Reference Points, Transylvanian Review, http://www.centruldestudiitransilvane.ro/
Document_Files/Review%202015%20-%202035/00000775/cwcpy_MarcelaSlusarciuc. pdf, 12.02.2021; Institutional aspects of cross-border cooperation, https://www.aebr.eu/ files/publications/inst_asp_99.en.pdf, 12.02.2021; Institutional cooperation with Ukraine
starts!, https://www.eeagrants.sk/en/news/institutional-cooperation-with-ukraine-starts,
12.02.2021; K.-L. Lepik (2011), Cross-Border Cooperation Institutional Organisation:
Cross-Border Cooperation’s Role in Regional Development Paperback, LAP LAMBERT
Academic Publishing, 136 p.
Features of cooperation activities carried out by the “Carpathian” and “Bug” euroregions
The Ukrainian-Polish virtual exchange by innovative projects and proposals was initiated in 2010 (Mytko, 2008, pp. 129–136). The offi-cial opening of the Cross-border Investment Agency launched its activity within the framework of the Project “Cross-border System of Investor
Ac-quiring Poland-Ukraine” was in 2013. The Volyn Regional
Entrepreneur-ship Support Fund, jointly with the European Union-funded Innovation and Development Promotion Center from Bialystok (Poland), has been implemented the present Project within the framework of the cross-bor-der cooperation Programme “Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2007–2013.” The Agency’s activities have been aimed at cooperation with the local authori-ties in the Volyn region to draft and promote the investment proposals.
The Cross-border Project “Cross-border System of Investor Acquiring
Poland-Ukraine” is characterized by a very strong cross-border impact. The
present Project strengthened the cooperation of the self-government bodies in the region, included in the Project toward creating joint investment pro-posals. The measures taken during the implementation of the Project are mainly aimed at creating a cross-border investment agency, drafting an in-vestment proposal of the region included in the project, conducting Polish-Ukrainian trainings for employees of self-government bodies, organizing joint study tours, providing professional consultations for employees of self-governing bodies, and investors, and creating a common web portal. The project’s cross-border impact lies in the joint creation of a procedure and transfer of best practices and models related to servicing investors at the lowest level of self-government within the cross-border regions of Po-land and Ukraine. It is noted that the main Project driver is some measures aimed at promoting the cross-border region of Podlaskie Voivodship and the Volyn region as attractive areas for foreign investors.
The most important effect of the cross-border project is developing the investment attractiveness of the Polish and Ukrainian border regions. Pro-ject results will greatly affect both its target group involving employees working for the self-government bodies and the final Project beneficiaries – investors and regional communities involved in the Project.
The cross-border effect for the target group is noticeable because of the creation of the best joint practices for investors and their services preceded by trainings, consultations, and joint study visits. The mutual exchange of experience and practice between the working bodies of self-government bodies in two countries, and a joint investment proposal, is made in the region. The starting point of the whole activities and kinds of cooperation, carried out by the self-governing bodies, is the Cross-border Investment Agency (CBIA), which is involved in training, consulting ser-vices, and study visits for the Project target groups. The CBIA is also a cross-border body with one office located in Ukraine, where experts from both countries will work, and their activities will be relevant to the entire project area. The Project outcome is to initiate a joint investment proposal of the cross-border region, its development. Employees of the self-government bodies will better serve potential investors.
The cross-border impact also affects the final Project beneficiaries – residents of the region, who participate in the Project. The results obtained at the event stage, like the investment proposal of the cross-border region, the region’s promotion, the improvement of investor services, the creation of an online platform related to the investment spheres, cause great capital inflows into the region, including the for-eign capital. On the other hand, it contributes to creating new jobs, some increase in employment rates, and improvement of the labor market on both sides of the region. Its impact on the revival of the development of Polish and Ukrainian cross-border regions, the improvement of living conditions in the communities involved in the Project, and the region’s economic growth is significant too. The beneficial economic and social impact on the border of Poland and Ukraine is undoubtedly an impor-tant benefit of this Project.
Ukrainian-Polish cross-border regions are involved in the activities of two Euroregions – the “Carpathian” and “Bug,” which are imple-menting important projects. These projects are developing cooperation in the field of quality control of the boundary waters of the Western Bug River Basin and improving the system of public participation in the prevention and elimination of environmental disasters in the “Bug”
Euroregion. “Three Polissia” (Three Polesie, 2020) – a joint strategy of the protection and ecological use of natural resources of Polish-Be-lorussian-Ukrainian border-zone, the construction of the second bridge over the river Western Bug in the area of International Automobile Bor-der-crossing checkpoints “Yahodyn – Dorohusk.” The Project “Living Tisa” (What is the, 2020), the project “Association of Museums and Art Galleries of the Carpathian Euroregion,” “Green Carpathians”; “Polish-Ukrainian Agency for Communal Development” provide for a perma-nent mechanism initiated to support Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in the communal sphere and to develop local democracy by establishing a system of information exchanges, developing contacts between enter-prises, etc. (Sidoran, 2010, pp. 87–93).
There are several industrial parks and zones in the region, such as Cherliany Industrial Park in Lviv Region, Solomonovo Industrial Park in the Transcarpathia region, and the Coast-Carpathians Industrial Park with elements of Logistics. In addition, there are a large number of tech-no-parks and business incubators in the region. The Lviv Polytechnic National University Techno-park and Yavoriv Techno-park operate in the Lviv region, the Volyn Regional Business Incubator in the Volyn region, the Business Incubator “Youth Capital” and the Uzhgorod Busi-ness Incubator in Transcarpathia region (Nemchenko, Nemchenko, 2011). There is Lublin Business Incubator, Lublin Polytechnic Busi-ness Incubator, Academic BusiBusi-ness Incubator at Maria Kure Skadowska University at the Higher School of Business and Administration in Lu-blin Voivodship, and there are five (5) business incubators in Podkar-packie Voivodship. There is also the aviation cluster of Letnich Valley (Carpathian region, 2013).
Problem issues to be solved at once
The essence of cross-border cooperation in particular embodied in Euroregions as the most successful form (according to, for example, Martyniuk, Troian, 2005) is the transformation of border regions into “poles of growth,” the network of which can form a kind of framework for some sustainable development of the country, formed in its peripheral territories. However, we cannot ignore the opinion of Euroregion experts, who conducted scientific intelligence on the mistakes and failures in the activities of these entities. For example, the director of the Institute for
Cross-Border Cooperation (Uzhgorod) (Telle, 2017), diplomat S. Ustych believes that work within the Carpathian Euroregion is in decline, it is in a severe social, economic, and even political crisis, the Council, as a governing body, is not functioning. One of the reasons is the lack of macroeconomic state support. Over the past 20 years, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Carpathian region have never met. The Ukrainian-Slovak, Ukrainian-Hungarian, and other intergovernmental commissions have not practically work (Why the mechanism).
The main factors hampering the development of cross-border coop-eration in Ukraine are listed herein below:
– the underestimation of cross-border cooperation as a tool of territorial/ regional development by central authorities and improvement of the quality of people life in the border regions of Ukraine;
– “the limited strategic vision of tasks and prospects for cross-border cooperation developed both by the government and local authorities of Ukraine, as well as by the “lack of joint planning skills for the de-velopment of border areas”;
– the low level of financial support for joint cross-border projects, both from the government and local authorities (except for the border infra-structure arrangement);
– the weakness of the regional development institutional base in the bor-der regions should play the role of one of the cross-borbor-der cooperation drivers;
– the lack of awareness among local authorities and tasks for develop-ing cross-border cooperation require coordinative functions, not rigid administration. Consequently, too few entrepreneurs and non-govern-mental organizations are involved in implementing cross-border co-operation projects (Analysis of…, 2015).
Among the factors hampering the deployment of cooperation along borders, experts also highlight:
– “excessive ambition and, at the same time, ambiguity in the mission of the Euroregions and their functioning at the borders of Ukraine and countries of Central Europe declaring their desire to solve common problems in all the spheres of public life”;
– low levels of socio-economic development on the territories, par-ticipating in cross-border cooperation compared to national average data;
– differences between the levels of the government decentralization in the countries of Central Europe and Ukraine;
– specifics of the Ukrainian legal system, the rules of which often con-flict with the EU rules in management and business.
The creation and implementation of joint development strategies have become a critical factor for activating cross-border regions. The practice of using an identical approach for strategic management of regions, re-gardless of their location relative to national borders, is quite common. Priorities for their development are formulated unilaterally, without coor-dination with the priorities of cross-border partners. Therefore, it is neces-sary to create strategies that share common goals, priorities, guidelines, and specific actions that will use cross-border potential to enhance the competitiveness of neighboring border regions. The following strategies of the Polish state are an example of such documents (Korop, Miszczuk, 2017, pp. 5–20): National Strategy for Regional Development 2010– 2020, Development Strategy of the Lubelskie Voivodship, The strategy for the Subcarpathian Voivodship development for 2007–2020, Strategy for Socio-Economic Development of Eastern Poland until 2020. It states that since 2004 as the EU border has been passing along the eastern bor-der of Poland, relations with its eastern neighbors, including Ukraine, are influencing Poland’s international image in the European Union and Europe as a whole. In addition, the Strategy states that if Ukraine were to become a candidate country for the EU membership in the nearest future, the funds allocated by the European Union to develop cooperation with its neighbors would increase, which would facilitate further development of relations between Ukraine and Poland. Therefore, Poland will stimulate the process of mutual rapprochement between the European Union and Ukraine. Promoting regional development along the border with Ukraine is one of the priority areas of the Strategy.
The state has got a resource to finance the programme (UAH 10 mil-lion, when UAH 300 million is required) for co-financing international technical assistance projects in the fourth year of implementing the State Programme for the Development of Cross-Border Cooperation (2016– 2020). However, only those projects were financed that were fixed in the appendix to the programme from the list of the ideas provided in 2015– 2016. The funds arrived in the regions at the end of the 2019 budget year, which significantly complicated their use by lower-level managers, but more than 95% of the total sum was used. It is worth mentioning that the 2016–2020 Programme proved to be an ineffective tool to deepen coop-eration between border areas, in particular, due to the lack of an efficient mechanism for co-financing cross-border cooperation projects and
limit-ing the scope of the programme to the list of projects that have lost their relevance (Lytvyn, 2020).
The elaboration of the State Programme for the Development of Cross-Border Cooperation (2021–2027) is in progress, but the corona-virus pandemic has made significant adjustments to the functioning of CBC structures. The Joint Monitoring Committee of the Programme has approved an additional € 3 million to fund cross-border health coopera-tion projects to support the fight against the Covid-19 outbreak. In total, 12 projects (7 PL-BY, 4 PL-UA, 1 PL-BY-UA), including hospitals and social service centers, can purchase additional equipment or introduce new health services to better respond to the situation. At the same time, the implementation of the planned project activities has not stopped. Their discussion and implementation have been transferred to the online space.
However, Ukraine remains Poland’s main strategic partner among non-EU countries. We agree with O. Charucka’s (Charucka, 2016, pp. 34–59) opinion that the current state of cooperation in the field of the Polish-Ukrainian border cannot be characterized as effective cooperation. Its development is hampered by economic, legal, and other social factors. Despite the destabilization in Ukraine, Polish companies are still not leav-ing the Ukrainian market and expectleav-ing better times because the potential is huge, ranging from heavy industry through chemicals to agriculture. World Bank data show that while Ukraine is not the best place to do busi-ness, it is developing and growing. The promotion of further cooperation depends on the progress of Ukraine’s European integration process and the reform of the local government.
Conclusions
Therefore, cross-border cooperation is a joint action aimed at estab-lishing and deepening economic, social, scientific, technical, environ-mental, cultural, and other relations between territorial communities, local executive bodies of Ukraine and territorial communities, and rel-evant authorities of other states within their competence and defined by national legislation. Cross-border cooperation will help attract foreign investments, give some impetus to production development, and provide a mechanism for implementing the transport corridor idea.
The organizational and legal support for the technology parks, manu-factural and industrial zones requires significant improvement, especially
regarding their functioning within cross-border regions. First of all, it is necessary to simplify the regulatory procedures, to outline mechanisms of the local self-government bodies, influencing the creation of the infra-structure developing industrial parks, to define ways of their interaction with local self-government bodies in neighboring states, to identify pri-orities of public-private partnerships during the project implementation. In particular, simplified procedures, controlling borders and customs can be proposed in cross-border industrial parks and zones, which will be cre-ated with the participation of the border areas of the EU Member States and Ukraine.
During the period of the Ukrainian independence within the cross-border regions, formed on the cross-border with Poland and the EU, there was a constant formation and development of individual structural elements of Euroregions. Primarily, it concerns the development of the institutional environment elements, the improvement of the infrastructure and quality of the human capital, and the formation of the cross-border business foun-dations. Simultaneously, many problems related to the full functioning of the cross-border Euroregions at the western border of Ukraine are still unresolved. Initially, it concerns the development of cross-border mar-kets, the establishment of modern methods of conducting cross-border business, the impact of local communities on cross-border activities, the establishment of information support for such activities, etc. In addition, the level of new cross-border cooperation forms using in Ukraine, par-ticularly cross-border clusters, partnerships, and cross-border industrial areas, is outright insufficient.
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Wsparcie instytucjonalne transgranicznej współpracy ukraińsko-polskiej w ramach euroregionów „Karpacki” i „Bug”
Streszczenie
Artykuł przedstawia współpracę ponadgraniczną jako działania kooperatywne, ukierunkowane na cele gospodarcze, społeczne, naukowe, techniczne, środowiskowe, kulturowe i inne, inicjujące i pogłębiające się między społecznościami terytorialny-mi, władzami lokalnymi zarówno na Ukrainie, jak i w Polsce. Podstawę metodyczną opracowania stanowią następujące podejścia do badania euroregionów: geograficz-ne, polityczgeograficz-ne, administracyjgeograficz-ne, funkcjonalne. Określono definicję euroregionu jako głównej formy współpracy transgranicznej oraz zbadano instytucje promujące taką współpracę między Ukrainą a Polską. Zbadano instytucjonalne wsparcie współpra-cy transgranicznej w ramach euroregionów „Karpacki” i „Bug.” Scharakteryzowano cechy ukraińsko-polskich euroregionów – „Karpacki” i „Bug.” Zidentyfikowano pro-blematyczne kwestie dotyczące wsparcia współpracy transgranicznej w euroregionie. Ponadto podano zalecenia dotyczące usprawnienia komponentu instytucjonalnego ukraińsko-polskiej współpracy transgranicznej w ramach euroregionów „Karpacki” i „Bug.”
Słowa kluczowe: wsparcie instytucjonalne, współpraca transgraniczna, „Karpacki”, „Bug”, Ukraina, Polska
